Creating & Pitching A film Idea (Coursework Practise)

 

 

THE 20

Planning, Creating and pitching....

 

Planning

 

So me and my group of 3 were given 4 cards with 2 names a genre and a prop. The idea was that we had to create a movie idea that included all 4 of theses cards.

 

Our Cards were as follows:

 

1. Horror
2. a knife
3. Jane
4. Jake (27)

With these cards we then brainstormed ideas with each other about what we could possibly do with them. We first attacked setting, There were a few ideas here and there for setting but we eventually decided on a call centre in a very tall building. This gives the feeling of isolation and no escape. And is perfect for a horror film as the people working there can be held captive without any contact to the outside world.

 

The next part to challenge was the characters Jane and Jake. We had to answer numerous questions like Who are these people? why are they here? and how do they know each other? The obvious choice was that they both worked there so we went with that. But we thought it was a bit too simple to do it like that so we changed it to it being James 1st day at work and Jake was showing her the ropes of the business.

 

Our final card that we had to include was a knife. This couldn't have been any easier for us because with our category being horror a knife was a piece of cake. We quickly decided that the knife would be a weapon used to kill a character in the film.

 

So what actually happens then? (Creating)

Now that we knew what we were working with we had to flesh it out. We eventually came up with the 20...

 

Jake is giving Jane her tour of the office when the stumble upon a cupboard with a puddle of blood under it. They open it to see A dead body (The boss) And run in fear to warn the others. There are as you guessed it, 20 workers at the call centre. They are greeted by a voice coming from the tannoy saying "What happened to your boss will happen to you if you don't do as I say. I have disabled all communication in and out of the office and just in case any of you want to become a hero I have rigged the building with C4. I want this office of 20 to be reduced to and office of 10. you have 24 hours. If not ill do it. Have fun, and do try not to get hurt "

 

With this announcement the office in in shock and they all become extremely paranoid wit one another. The decide to have a meeting to see what to do until one worker kills 3 people in a rampage and gets himself killed in the process. The voice comes back and simply says "Six more hurry up...." So at this point the whole office gets a reality check that this is happening and people are killing each other. It then becomes a standoff until that night when they wake up and see they only have 10 people left in the office and 4 more dead bodies. Nobody knows who did it or how but they are dead.

 

 

The voice comes back that day and says. "What if I told you all I am one of you 10?" The workers all then think that its a lie but in the back of their head they believe it. This is then shown to be true as the killing carry's on without anyone knowing it 2 more people are dead. the tannoy returns "That was me"

 

That night the voice comes back "There are 4 guns on jamies desk, whoever wants them they are there for you. If I were you I would get them. This creates a 4 vs 4 situation and one team eventually kills the other but one dies in the process. So there are 3 left.

 

2 people discover Craig's office draws have plans to kill everyone and they realise he was the killer. And Craig it the other one out of the remaining 3 and he is confronted and its a 2vs1 situation but Craig is one step ahead and has already poisoned them both allegedly. They can help but believe it and kill themselves as Craig says it would be a painful death by the poison to the  hang them self's and one slits their neck (The knife)

 

 

Finally Craig commits suicide by blowing up the whole building and taking out the city area around it.

 

 

 

So know you know how we came up with he ideas, here's how we pitched it... (Pitching)

 

1st things first plan, plan PLAN!

 

we had to plan The pitch before hand if not it would not be to the best of its ability and without it being its best we would have less chance of people liking it.

 

Next we designated parts of the pitch to each other so one explained what the idea is in brief, they would just tell the story by saying the main idea and a rough plot with pics and storyboards.

 

The next person explained a why we thought it would be a good film. Some of the reasons where:

 

1. its an original story line
2. there's a gap in the market for this film
3. its believable
4. its something the viewer is trying to work out while watching

And this was to persuade the people who we are pitching to agree that the film is a good idea. And really just to list all the pros about it.

 

We then explained how we came up with the ideas in the film and why we chose each part, For example the tannoy because it creates mystery and suspense. This would give the people to who we were pitching to an incite on how the ideas were created and what our thought process behind them was.

 

The next person was there ready to answer any questions that they had and tried to explain the answers as best as they can. This is an important role as by not knowing how to answer a questing might show us as looking like we don't even understand our of film idea. So it was vital that all questions are answered as best as possible to convince people we are confident with out ideas.

 

Finally we would ask the people to who we were pitching to what there thoughts were and if they are interested. We would then get a reply and progress from that...

 

Along the pitch we would have a slide show with storyboards and pics and draw ups of the ideas as we spoke so the people to who we were pitching to didn't get bored and had something that they could visually see.

 

But before all of the previously listed things you need above all, the main thing in the pitching process is teamwork. As a unprofessional pitch is usually one where the pitchers look unorganised and cannot cooperate because anyone who can pitch a film has no hope in getting noticed and becoming successful with it. Remember teamwork is key!

 

 

 

And that's it... from start to the end of pitching how we made the film ideas and how it was presented. Hope this helps any of you out there wondering how to create a film idea and what to do next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2 minute opening to feature films analysis (Coursework Research)

In the opening of a feature film I would expect it to show some of the main characters, set the genre of the film and to give us as the audience a slight insight to what is coming up in the rest of the film. Well, that's what I thought until I paid closer attention to the opening two minutes when I realised that this is not always the case. In actual fact not much of what I thought would happen doesn't really happen at all! In this post I will be analysing 3 feature film openings and 3 student film openings these are:

Feature Films

 

Dark Night Rises

 

 

The plot of the film is only touched slightly in the opening two minutes. But what we can get from it is that there is a group of what I assume to be terrorists on a plane and they are being threatened to talk and give away some information. The real importance of the scene starts when the person with the mask is revealed.

 

This is clearly a significant character in the film because you can see the other mans reaction to who he has found under the bag on his head. And the only other important character that there seems to be is the ring leader of the people questioning the terrorists.

 

There is plenty of dialogue in the scene and it is used to show panic as the man is shouting and it also informs us on the situation at hand. The other significant dialogue used its when the man with the mask starts talking and says" Perhaps they are wondering why you are shooting them before you push them off the plane?" this shows the audience that he is a clever and experienced man in this field and should not be messed with.

Pokémon the movie

 

 The plot of the film in this opening scene is not revealed at all. The only thing that we can get from it is that Ash from Pallet Town is a Pokémon trainer and must be a good one too because a random man says he is looking for him to battle against. This means that he must be respected around this area and he is well known.

 

All of the key characters are revealed in this opening two minutes at some point although the only one you hear is Ash. Most of the well know Pokémon are shown too in a huge battle against this traveller and of course, Ash wins.

 

There is not much dialogue in this scene at all apart from in the first 30 seconds when the two trainers meet. The rest is non-diegetic music. This is the theme song to Pokémon and it plays over the battle.

 

Lion King

 

 

The opening scene of this film is all non-diegetic music with some diegetic sounds in the background. the actual actions happening on the screen is not very revealing of the plot either as it just shows animals walking across the plains of a country. Near the end of the scene we see a lion and bird exchange some sort of signals with each other so this may signal that they are some of the more important characters in the film.

 

This film opening has been made very well because although its just music and animals walking it still makes me want to watch the film. And for Disney to manage to do that then they have done a very good job on making the opening two minutes.